Netflix CEO Says Future of Entertainment May Be Hallucinogenic Pill

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, speculates that the future of entertainment might be in Matrix-like pills, one to bring you into a hallucinogenic world of entertainment, and one to take you out. This deeper dive into augmented reality is not unprecedented in the evolution of entertainment — the same way film and TV supplanted the opera and the novel, this pill is also offering a completely new paradigm in which we can experience entertainment.

via QZ:

Yesterday evening (Oct. 24), the Netflix boss speculated about what the future of entertainment may hold, at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJDLive conference. The prospects were quite entertaining.

Hastings spoke of improved entertainment “substitutes” for movies and shows that will make their way into the mainstream in the future, just as “the opera and the novel” were marginalized by films and TV, the Next Web reported.

Hastings hasn’t pinpointed exactly what those substitutes will be yet, but he has a few ideas. “Is it VR, is it gaming, is it pharmacological?” he mused, according to TechCrunch.